Friday, August 28, 2015

1. When I take the kids to the park, I use a
small "Pack-It" freezable bag
to keep their snacks cool. On our last trip, my four-year-old daughter
-- who has recently become enamored of a time and place of maturity
and enlightenment known as "high school" -- also took a liking to the
bag.

"Daddy, when I'm older, like maybe five or in high
school, can I have that bag for my snacks?"

"Maybe, so,
Pumpkin."

This makes me want to put the bag aside for a
decade and present it to her when she starts high school.

2. We'll set aside the fact that my pocket is
being picked, and my time is being wasted; it's still nice to hear the
following from my new accountant regarding
a crazy letter from the IRS and a fat "refund" check I had the
sense not to cash: "This letter makes no sense."

Thank
goodness all our mistakes were burned up. Now we can start fresh
again.

This he said after his factory burned to the ground
in 1914, "destroying one-of-a-kind prototypes and causing $23 million
in damage."

4. At last! Someone
has taken the time to debunk that silly eight glasses of water
a day rule, as well as its various corollaries:

Many
people believe that the source of this myth was a 1945 Food and
Nutrition Board recommendation that said people need about 2.5 liters
of water a day. But they ignored the sentence that followed closely
behind. It read, "Most of this quantity is contained in prepared
foods." [link dropped]

More accurately, I am now aware of
the debunking, not that I ever believed this. Read the whole thing,
especially if you have children: There's an effort afoot to scare you
regarding pediatric hydration that this story also addresses.